The Writer's Crate is an inspiring space to work in until you reach your daily writing goal.

Monday, May 30, 2016

It's All Copy

From Kate’s
Writing Crate…

Time is a funny thing. It seems to
pass slowly while we wait for birthdays and holidays or winter to be over, but
days fly by as we rush around working and running errands while planning
dinners and doing laundry. Years pile up and before we know it we receive
reunion invitations with numbers we can hardly believe.

However, the biggest jolt in time for
me is when children of friends who live far away who I remember in baby bonnets or first grade
are now driving or going to college. How could that much time have passed?

These children seem to have spent
their time well. They have learned to walk and talk and read and write. They are
graduating, moving, and preparing for careers.

Has my time been as well spent?

There aren’t as many milestones after
graduation except new job titles and possible marriage and/or parenthood. For
writers: pages written, assignments completed, and pieces and books published.

Happiness and satisfaction are good
indicators. Stay the course if you are happy and satisfied; shake things up if
not. Trying something new can be fun in either situation.

What we do need to remember in the end
is that life is short. Writer and
director Nora Ephron, who died a few of years ago, was on a clip from Charlie
Rose’s show in her son’s tribute documentary, It’s All Copy, discussing that you know what you want for your last
meal but you never know when you’re going to die so have that meal soon. Good
advice—plus it answers the everyday question of what’s for dinner!

"It’s all copy" is a phrase Ephron’s
mother, a screenwriter, used to say whenever life didn’t work out as planned. Ephron
also noted everything you see, feel, and hear is fair game.

Don’t just write what you know. Write
about what catches your eye, gives you goosebumps, or sparks an interest.

We
do not write in order to be understood,

we write in order to understand.

--C.
Day-Lewis

I am rewritten by what I write.

--Robert
Grudin

Life
is short so write whatever you want whenever
you can wherever you are.